100 Very Best Restaurants 2013: The Atlas Room

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Photograph by Scott Suchman

About Atlas Room

Cost:

There are menus you open and say to yourself: I want one of
everything. Then there are those you read over and over again because no
item compels you. Put the Atlas Room in the narrow category of restaurants
that deliver more on the plate than they appear to promise in their
description.

Chefs Matt Cordes and Bobby Beard demonstrate an uncanny
ability to reanimate a preparation you may have tired of years ago. Who
eats stuffed red peppers anymore? We do, after sampling their rendition,
which features quinoa and a carrot-cumin sauce. What trendy bistro isn’t
featuring lamb Bolognese? Their springy fettuccine doused with rustic meat
sauce and finished with a dollop of ricotta is a standout—pure comfort on
a winter’s night. Not unlike this charmer of a restaurant.

Don’t
miss:
Lamb meatballs; Amish summer pie; roasted chicken with
roasted potato and mushrooms; chilled seared tuna; ricotta fritters.

Open: Daily for dinner. Expensive.

100 Very Best Restaurants 2013


Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.